Mindful Photography
A course I've been working on.
Over a year ago, I gathered some women to join the Born to Rise™ Soul Pilots Circle. It was for women who coach, mentor, teach or lead teams, to give them some time to relax and fill their cups. At the end of our meeting of meditation and discussion we each put an intention out to the Universe. Mine was to get back to doing more of my mindfulness practices. About a week later I got a call from The Great Courses asking me if I’d like to write a Mindful Photography course! BAM and there it was. Ask and ye shall receive.
I was excited as I had taught this course at the Circle of Scholars at Salve Regina University a while back and had done a short course that I offered online. Great Courses asked me, however, to design twelve lessons that would be a half an hour long each! I paniced a bit thinking about coming up with enough to say but this past weekend, I completed all the writing and will record each lesson in December down at their studios in Virginia. Yes, I will have to be on camera and you get to listen to my wisdom and see my cute face for twelve lessons if you choose to subscibe. The Great Courses, if you are unfamiliar is a streaming service for continued learning that offers video and audio courses. It’s really quite awesome.
But what is Mindful Photography you ask? It’s the Art of slowing down and looking at a particular thing with a particular kind of attention in the present moment without judgment. Then documenting what you see, in that moment, through the lens of a camera. Got that? Well, as you may know, I have been a photographer since I was a teenager and have studied Buddhism and Mindfulness for about seventeen years now. I get to combine my passions for this course and its been a great honor and challenge.
Being a photographer prepared me to be more mindful even before I knew what mindfulness was. I grew up before we needed that term. As a child I spent hours looking at the water, dragging my fingers in the sand and sitting with “nothing” to do. Different times. Every time I pick up a camera though, I tend to become more aware and present as I look through the view finder with intention. I am observing with curiosity for what might arise in my frame. I am looking for moments of expression, beauty or interesting compositions. And I have practiced this for years. I think it has been the training ground for doing the same with my camera down as well.
Writing this course has been challenging because well, its a lot of writing and I want the course to be impactful for the students. I have found so much value in looking at my life from a new perspective, not only through my camera lens, but through my mindfulness practices. Both have helped my pay closer attention to what I am drawn to, to look for the good and the beauty in any situation or environment and to just freakin’ slow down once and a while and take it all in. Life is extraordinary, it’s challenging and it’s full of love and beauty when we shift our focus and pay attention. In my course I bring in concepts of our attachments, being in relationships and connecting through portrait photography. I use a street photography assignment to explore how you can find peace in chaos and see others as they are and not how you expect them to be. I have students explore the present moments that only photographs can capture and how change is something to embrace.
It’s been a blast combining my love of photography and the Buddhist Dharma and mindfulness into this course and has stretched me to be a better writer and to have confidence that I can do something that feels big. So keep putting out to the Universe what you want for your life. It may show up in ways that you’d never think but will help you grow and awaken to new possiblities. I know you can do what you dream of. Just take one step at a time.
The Mindful Photography course should be out the summer of 2025 on the Great Courses platforms in video and in audio. I hope you will watch and listen and enjoy picture making with an intention to help you awaken to your beautiful life in a more expansive way.
Namaste